Hey I gotta dumb question,gotta 04 hyundai elantra (actually the wifes)and am going to change the timing belt myself,I bought a factory shop manual and have also bought a new hyundai timing belt .I looked in the book and at the hyundai service website and the belt adjustmentsaren't clear enough forme to be confident,is there any easier ways to check or to do the proper belt adjustment other than whats in the manual,I dont understand what it means,like how to measure or even where exactly the belt cog end sags exactly 20N,5lb,how do you know its exactly 5lb??I'm mechanically savvy but need a billsh#t filter to understand the slang and settings used in the book!!! please help and also thanks!!

 

My interpretation is the tension side of the belt should deflect less than a quarter of an inch when you push on it with a force about equal to 5 pounds about half way between the cam cog and the idler pulley. That's pretty snug for a rubber belt. Grab your wife's bathroom scale and push down on it with your index finger and hold the scale at 5 pounds. That's how much pressure you need to put on the tensioned belt. Hold a straight edge against the back of the belt that long enough to cover the distance from the cog to pulley. When you push on the belt, you can eyeball the gap between the edge and the belt. It should be ~3/16th to 1/4 of an inch.

 

thanks Ken,I appreciatte the insight,sounds alot more clear now,guess I'm gonna go out and tackle it today and hopefully all goes well.

 

P.S. Make sure the timing belt is installed to run in the right direction (arrows on the belt indicating rotation), and definately follow the recommendation to fully rotate the engine by hand several times, double checking the alignment of the timing marks on the crank and cam after each rotation. Bad things happen if the engine is started and the cam timing isn't right.

 

Well,Ken I must say thanks again! Got the belt changed and did what you said and all worked out as well.I used a fishing scale to determine my 5lbs of tension while I measured the belt and that worked.Thanks again!!

 

You mean you have a wife that permits you to have fishing equipment?

 

Yeah,but I can HONESTLY say this is the first time I've had the tackle box open in three years!!!My buddies and I used to go out fishing every friday night but the one night that it was cold they decided to go to the bar instead and of course they twisted my arm,it was so much fun that we went the next week also and then I got busted!!! The wife actually thought we were doing this all along and decided to put bread bag ties on my fishing lures,clipped on the fishing poles!!!She asked me how late we fished and I told her 2:30 then she got mad and grabbed the poles outta the bed of my truck and showed me they the bread bag ties!!BUSTED!!!,so she thought I lied all along !!!so that is why there is so much dust on my fishin' stuff!!!! don't get caught like I did!!!!! check your poles if you do!!!!